Hear the Arctic’s ‘Underwater Jungle’

As part of this year’s Climate Forward conference, the team wanted to find a new way for attendees to understand how our planet is changing. Producer Evan Roberts talked to scientists and researchers who are capturing natural soundscapes before they change forever.

The Climate Forward team compiled the work of three researchers to create an audio installation, called the Sounds of Climate Change. This soundscape offers a sonic tour of the underwater Arctic.

Bernie Krause, a prominent audio ecologist, coined the term “biophony” to describe earthly sounds from nonhuman organisms, like the calls, songs and buzzes produced by animals and insects. Paired with nonbiological sounds of the Earth, or the “geophony,” these layers of sound make up the ambient symphony of our planet. And as our planet warms, this natural soundscape is shifting in surprising ways.

For those who have spent their careers listening closely, these changes are not abstract.

“When I started going up to the Arctic, I thought I would be spending my career listening to bowhead whales,” said Kate Stafford, a bioacoustician at Oregon State University, who recorded this soundscape.  “But what I’ve ended up doing is listening to climate change.”

Dr. Stafford records what she calls the “underwater jungle.” By lowering hydrophones, or waterproof microphones, into the frigid ocean, she captures bowheads moaning, belugas whistling and even the deafening sound of air guns being used in oil exploration. She has heard the shrinking sea ice disrupt animal migration patterns and introduce new predators. As the planet warms, the waters of the ice-covered Arctic is becoming louder and stormier.

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